my adventures in the kitchen (with a bit of life in general thrown in)

The aubergines were out in full force at the market two weekends ago and I had to pick one up. When I got home I immediately turned to a Yotam “king of aubergines” Ottolenghi book and found this recipe in Jerusalem (available online here). Aside from the aubergines and fresh herbs this is mostly composed of “cupboard” items, stuff I normally have lying around already, which is a bit rare for Ottolenghi but obviously very welcomed.

There are two main steps to preparing this meal, first the chermoula and aubergines, and then the bulgur salad. The chermoula (yum) is composed of garlic, cumin, coriander, chilli, paprika, preserved lemon, olive oil, and salt. The aubergines if scored properly bake really well and are easy to dig out of when eating.

This is a really simple meal that also looks good on a plate. Because of this it is one of those rare things that’s perfect for a quick weeknight meal but also could equally be served at a dinner party. It’s also a really robust “meaty”-feeling vegetarian dish (H. and I split one very large aubergine) and could easily be made vegan without the yogurt.

I’ll leave you with a random aubergine fact: they are actually berries, not vegetables (who knew?!).